You love me like the artificial
bone loves the dog, leather
smack and toothmark.

I bark at the aqua wall, whimper
when thrown to the Venetian. I fleck
paint, dig nails into sheetrock.

My saliva carpets this floor, all tongue
and hunger, lapping water like
it’s the only thing keeping me alive.

(originally published in Page & Spine, Spring 2017)